We speak of a nation’s cuisine as a single common entity, but traversing a country from north to south or east to west, you will find an amazing variation in food based on regional tastes, terroir and geography that allows particular ingredients to flourish. The differences amount to the culinary equivalent of language dialects.
If differences can be pronounced in a single nation, imagine what happens when a cuisine jumps the pond as Japanese cuisine has in Hawaii and abroad.
At Izakaya Mai, which opened in the space that formerly housed Ojiya, across from the Hawai’i Convention Center, we have Japanese cuisine that is neither a Hawaii-Japanese hybrid nor distinctly from the motherland.
Instead, Izakaya Mai is a family restaurant with roots in California, and it offers a novel change of pace for those who might believe there is only one way to introduce Japanese cuisine to the table. There’s more sweetness in sauces and soup bases, and more fire than we’re accustomed to tasting.
Owner Yoichi Ito was an instructor for Benihana restaurants before branching out on his own in San Mateo, Calif., and he’s aiming to replicate his California success here.
The restaurant offers a vast menu of izakaya specialties from sushi to grilled and deep-fried specialties.
Plentiful photos make it easier to pick out dishes. It’s especially helpful when we have no conception of sushi rolls with names like "Crazy Monkey" (hamachi, salmon, tobiko and cucumber), "Crazy Jalapeno" (cream cheese and ahi in a sliced jalapeno) or "Titanic," a jumbo roll featuring shrimp tempura, cucumber, avocado, ahi and salmon.
Yup, they do things differently in California, and success for this restaurant hinges on managing expectations, which is clear from ordering something as simple as potato salad. It delivered a jolt to the system with its sour flavor, more on par with a German-style salad than the sweet local version to which we’re accustomed.
In coming months it will be interesting to see whether this restaurant will find its audience or whether — like many imports — the restaurant evolves to suit the local palate. It’s telling when social-media types, grilled on Facebook as to what to order here, could only single out the champon, on a menu with dozens of items.
The champon, too, is different from the traditional Nagasaki-style noodle soup that starts with pork and chicken broth. Here a combination of pork and ika give it a briny flavor that wows fish lovers and sets it apart from other versions.
The champon is available in plain ($9.95), kim chee ($11.95) or spicy cod roe (mentaiko, $11.95) versions. I imagined the broth, in local style, would be kim chee spiced. But it turned out to be the regular champon with a small handful of kim chee on top. It’s enough to flavor the soup but is not the spice party that heat lovers might expect. I also expected the cod roe to be stirred into the broth, but in the mentaiko version, whole cod sacs are placed atop regular champon. It’s not a pretty sight.
Just as good as the champon was the okonomiyaki ($8.95). The savory egg-and-flour pancake has less cabbage and is about a quarter of the thickness of local versions, but just as delicious, and beautifully presented with a glossy, saucy surface that looked like a sheet of Fiberglas.
Salmon shioyaki ($6.50) was dry but passable, and you won’t go wrong with such staples as chicken karaage ($6.50) and shrimp ($8.95) and mixed ($9.50) tempura, although the attendant sauce lacked flavor.
I found the individual ingredients in the tempura nabeyaki ($11.95) up to par, but the broth was so sweet it rendered most of the udon inedible.
Your other best bet will be specialty sushi rolls, such as a picturesque Dragon Roll ($14.95) made of a whole unagi, and Cherry Blossom Roll ($14.95) of sushi "petals" of salmon, avocado, ahi and tobiko, arranged in flower form.
I loved the spice of the Crazy Jalapeno, and the baked "Lion King" ($9.95) is a massive creamy creation, a California roll with salmon and cream cheese. That was ono, no matter which form of Japanese cuisine you call your own.
Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
